JOURNAL OF THE NATIONAL ACADEMY FOR CHILD DEVELOPMENT
1984, Volume 4, No. 3
Sensory Deprivation
Robert J. Doman, M.D.
Stimulation is vital to our brain's
efficiency. It is the regular and proper stimulation of our
brain through our five senses that permits us to be able to
function on a relatively steady, even keel most of the time
as our brain relates us to what is happening around us. Proper
stimulation leads to the proliferation of more and more connections
between brain cells creating more efficient pathways of brain
function.
But what happens to the brain's efficiency
when the brain is deprived of proper stimulation? Sensory
deprivation studies show us that sudden and nearly complete
deprivation of stimulation through the five senses can lead
to dramatic changes in the brain's efficiency with a partial
loss of memory, a lowering of the I.Q., personality changes
including withdrawal, hallucinations, and in some people even
an abnormal electroencephalogram, a picture not unlike what
is seen in the mentally ill patient who becomes withdrawn
and hallucinates.
The bright side of such studies on
sensory deprivation is that they teach us that the adverse
effects of deprivation can be reversed if the deprivation
is stopped and the brain properly stimulated. It is important
that we realize such problems are reversible with proper stimulation.
Let's look at some chronic or longer
lasting forms of sensory deprivation. Sadly, this country's
recent history provides a number of examples of just such
deprivation with its sometimes tragic results. Captured U.S.
soldiers fighting in Korea were subjected to a prolonged period
of isolation by their captors. During such isolation they
were forced to listen to propaganda. Their brains, dulled
by prolonged isolation, were vulnerable to the propaganda
to the degree that when a truce was declared and prisoners
exchanged, many U.S. soldiers refused to return home. Later
after being taken out of isolation and permitted the normal
stimulating effects of an active environment, their brains'
efficiency improved to the point that most of them wanted
to, and finally did, return home.
The Pueblo incident and the sad effects
of isolation on Captain Bucher and his crew should have taught
us that none of us would be immune to the adverse effects
on the brain of other forms of sensory deprivation. For example,
the cerebral palsy child whose body is restricted by braces
and a wheelchair is deprived of some of his most needed forms
of stimulation, that which comes from uninhibited movement
providing the brain with tactile, vestibular, and proprioceptive
feedback stimulation from the body extremities, the muscles,
and the joints. Adult head injury patients and stroke patients
are also frequently subjected to the same restrictive environment
depriving their brains of desperately needed stimulation.
Being confined to the non-stimulating environment of the nursing
home dulls the patient's brain, adding to any disorganization
and confusion produced by the brain injury itself. Sedatives
and tranquilizers often prescribed for such patients add to
their mental confusion making it even more difficult for the
patient to properly relate to his surroundings and causes
deeper and deeper withdrawal.
A classic example of a withdrawn child
is the Autistic child. In treating the many Autistic children
seen by NACD, we find one of the frequent observations is
that many such children have turned off one or more of their
senses, thus creating their own isolation from which we must
shake them. To a lesser degree, the child who daydreams in
class is temporarily turning off the world, contributing to
a possible future learning disorder. The normal child who
turns off his parents and teacher may be developing a behavior
problem. Schools and homes together are turning many children
off to learning.
NACD, with its evaluation of a client's
brain efficiency using the Developmental Profile, is aware
of any shortcoming in sensory intake and is able to provide
an individualized program of sensory stimulation designed
to prevent or overcome any associated problems thereby broadening
the brain's horizons.
Reprinted from the Journal
of the National
Academy for Child Development
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